/egs/ - El Goonish Shive - Kitty Edition

> What is El Goonish Shive?A webcomic. The early years were awkward and sketchy, but it's grown into something awesome in the last fourteen years.

> Why is it in /aco/?Loads of fetish material and a Patreon-funded pin up blog. The thread image is an edit of one of those pin ups. The comic is still technically worksafe, but our discussion of it isn't.

> Any links I should know?egscomics is the main page. egspinups is the Patreon-funded art at Tumblr. egs-edits, also at Tumblr, takes pinups, sketchbook entries, and comics and makes pretty good nude edits. There are a few good fics at AO3 as well, but any drawfags, writefags, or editfags that want to hop on the train are encouraged to.

The OP pic-related is a hi-res single panel from the current story arc of EGS-NP. EGS-NP ( http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php ) is a second comic the author runs in parallel to the main comic ( http://www.egscomics.com/ ) ... sometimes the content is canon to the main story, sometimes it isn't and Dan Shive just uses it to 'blow off steam' and get other misc. debris out of his brain.

The current arc _IS_ canon and the events are, of course, part of the main story.

The character, Kitty, is new to the EGS universe and was introduced in this EGS-NP arc. Will we ever see Kitty again ..? Some of us, at least, hope so. But, she will probably be peripheral, at best, like a number of other delicious characters.

>>1222098>>1222157>>1222261also of note is that there are more reasons then just repeating a year for someone to be one year older then the norm for their grade. Myself and a couple others in my graduation class had either not been enrolled in kindergarten immediately or had to participate in 'pre-first grade' a sort of in between of first grade and kindergarten for those with some behavior issues.

>>1231039>http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=585>A lot of people have also said they want to see Felix and Kitty's story continue. I don't believe it should right away, but mostly because this storyline (and the related one before it) have been going on for a really long time, and if I do a storyline with Felix and Kitty, I want to write it well in advance.>In short, it'll happen eventually, but there'll be some other things before then.

>>1236349I started around the time of the magickal gatherings tournament because someone was posting images on /tg/I would have loved to follow it since the deviant art tier beginnings and see it mature by my side

>>1239712Three (not counting Grace) in the past... three months? When was Sam introduced?

>>1239849>Crush is a lesbian, and likes being so>Plot power makes spell permanent/useful>Just has a fetish for it>Gets tangled up in a web of lies involving their gender>Part of a bet/dealThere are tons of other ways.

>>1240123I have a transformation fetish too, anon. Why would I read this otherwise?

>>1240653Nope. TG is one of my biggest fetishes - I just like it purely in an erotic sense, as opposed to the wish-fulfillment style that's become associated with the concept of real-life transsexualism..

>>1240640sam was... a while ago, that was around the tournament arc>>1240653not that anon but gotta admit, I went the full circle starting with ranma it was fun, then a fetish, then wish fulfilment, then I got to read a fuckton of material like that on the internet and now I kinda miss the freshness of just having gender changes be wacky

That or I guess, it hits a bit close to home. I really like that eliott is getting more comfortable with his female form a lot but I'm not that intrested in what tedd's going through right now.

>>1242917I still prefer Eliott, Ellen and Sarah.They're pretty normal by the comic's standarts but they are used to the weirdness and have their few own deviant quirks.Diane is harder to identify with since she's stillnot in the know at all.

>>1243665Diane is for multiple stratas of dom/equality swtching.Topmost personality is lapha bitch packleader, under that she's an honest femina normie.Then in a relationship she takes a gentle femdom role, thinking she's very dom for it despite being very soft.Under that she's embarassed that what she considers kinky is entry tier fetish and tries being a bit of a sub while getting introduced to the rope and things like that.[spoiler:lit]And final layer is when you flip her switch while playing with wax and end up with hard femdom and her not giving an inch away unless you're out of the bedroom.[/spoiler:lit]

As far as Dan doing something canon with it, I think the hesitation is writing it up with respect to how Ted will behave & react. Keeping in mind that, as far as canon that we know is concerned, I believe Ed is still married to Ted's mom, even if she is off on another continent being one of the most bad-ass magic-user/hunters on the planet.

Probably the thing that gives me some disappointment at this time is that Ted has grown up enough to handle a lot more than his dad is giving him credit for. Clearly, Dan is portraying Ted as a young man with issues. But, fucking come on already. He's old enough and he has matured enough with his friends ... and then you have to compare what his alternates have become in other universes.

tl;dr -- Ed is coddling Ted far too much. He should just show up at the homestead one night with Lavender. "Ted, give us some space tonight. You and I will discuss this later." Ideally with Lavender hanging off of Ed, glowing with happiness.

In the last thread, I brought up "the age question", but never clarified. What I meant was:If Tedd can transform into a "non-time of the month girl" at any point, can he transform into a girl at a different age than himself? Is it a time-based thing?

Lets take Shampoo for instance. She beats up on Ranma, turns herself into a cat right in front of him knowing full well he's afraid of them and she even tries to blackmail him by making him unable to change back to a male by making him hypersensitive to water temperature...

And yet she EXPECTS him to jump right into her arms? Let's not forget she has a guy who already loves her like she was the last woman on Earth, and treats him like shit.

Honestly, I think that was kinda the point. By introducing a bunch of unlikeable douchebags into an overly-complicated love triangle there was sort of this parody of will they-won't they stuff, which took a back seat anyway to the wacky situations and goofy characters. There's basically no reason for any characters to like any other characters, so the point is you're supposed to laugh when stupid shit happens to them.

>>1264790Naw, it wasn't a parody of overly complicated romance plots. The woman who wrote it started out doing it because she was a bored stay-at-home housewife. She wrote it to BE an overly complicated romance plot. And she liked the way the characters interacted. Whether a person finds the characters unlikable or not is up to them. The fact I don't like any of them doesn't mean you shouldn't.

Seriously, I was waiting for something to pop up when they started that show, and even had a few pics commissioned based on what I thought>wantedTo happen; Susan's hormones suddenly smack her right between the eyes and she jumps him on that couch.

The set up was right fucking there!>>1257121Also, as someone who uses Ranma 1/2 as fetish fuel and is somewhat a nostalgic fan of same, I would like to say that there are a lot of reasons to hate the characters, but it depends on how seriously you take the series as a whole, and how much leeway you're willing to give the over-simplified and drawn out cliches.

Akane smacking him and calling him a pervert, being a jealous/abusive bitch can be understood, considering she was assaulted for 3 months by a bunch of wannabe rapists, who didn't care that she whipped ass every time.

Then one guy shows up, beats the leader and they say, "We give up, he's officially claimed you now, even though he's acting like he never wanted it and didn't even try to attack us."

She was terrified, insulted, disrespected, and wasn't even allowed to save herself. Her behavior becomes a bit more understandable at that point.

She still needs to take a long, tall drink out of a Shut The Fu-Cup, but it's very easy to take her character away from being one of the worst Tsundere's ever. And that's true for ALL of the Ranma characters.

>Hilariously, a friend told me that Princess Leia is how you PROPERLY make a Tsundere.

>>1266202Mostly because she's got a litany of relationship and personal issues that make relationships in general and physical relationships specifically difficult.

Remember first that Susan was raised by a harpy who drilled into her head from an early age that men are scum who will only try to use you. She's realized the error of this line of thinking and is trying to move past it into a more egalitarian version of feminism, but it's still a work in progress.

Another thing that she is trying to move past is the fact that she doesn't like to be touched in general. I dunno how familiar you are with the act of sex, but it usually involves touching each other.

And anyway, I believe she's outright said that she has little or no actual sex drive.

TL;DR: She's kinda broken a little, and in ways that make her unlikely to seek or offer sexual gratification.

Oh, and also on Elliot's side of things: Dude, he wouldn't fuck Sarah, and that was part of the reason Sarah broke up with him. If he wasn't going to make it with a girl who was actually down with the D, then what makes you think he'd fuck a girl who has intimacy issues, hates being touched, and has speculated she's probably asexual?

>>1266529Yeah, if you want there's something despicable about every character (though some like Akane certainly have decent justification for their faults), so a lot of the question is if you find their gag funny. Really, the only characters in that show I actually hated were Happosai and everybody connection with Martial Arts Tea Ceremony. Why did they keep bringing that stupid thing back...?

Anyway, with regards to the latest EGS I'd say Elliot should actually read *more* internet comments. His magic is already geared towards self-transformation. If he keeps getting angrier in a glowy way like this it's only a matter of time until he unlocks a female Super Saiyan transformation.

>>1269905That was a power Dan planned to give him, but later decided not to implement because it went too far in the Painted Black direction of tone, so he made it a general "hates hates HATES bullies" thing. Plus artistic licence.

I feel like Dan doesn't play off of the fact that Elliot and Ellen are basically the same person often enough. I know he did that alternate universe memory bullshit so that they wouldn't be the exact same person, but it's still such a cool relationship for two characters to have and it would make for great storytelling if he actually tried.

Mostly because of Elliot barely having changed as a person since the start of the comic and still being just as much of a predictable lawful good boy scout. He's developed some as a character, but it's dwarfed Ellen's differences.

Ellen has his memories but in the whole "nature vs nurture" deal there are apparently some minor things that result in her being more outgoing and rebellious despite having Elliot's mind as a starting point. She grew away from being like him pretty quickly and the result of such a dynamic shift is a more self-aware and introspective person.

The result is she knows him better than he knows himself because she has the context of where she is now. Essentially she is on the outside looking in and he is on the inside looking out. She can see the big picture as far as the inner workings of his mind go.

So their interactions now are him seeming naive while she calls him out constantly, predicts everything he does, and is generally always right when it comes to any issue he is having.

She would probably get annoyed and tired of spending excess time around him, or bored at least, and would rather run wild and do crazy shit with any of the others.

When with the whole group they balance each other out, but too much of just the two of them would get old fast.

>>1281626>he's experimenting with animation techniques to make chibis easier to produceIf that works, that mean pretty much all egs:np will be chibi in the future. But it also means a lot more time for story comics. Except if he launches a new canon arc like mall escape.

>>1291418If Dan wasn't evil, he wouldn't understand his audience. What really sells it is the double entendre of "Now hug." Grace is just so innocent, her line is so innocent, in the sense of now be friends and be friendly. "Now hug and make up." Not hug and make-out.Still it meets Grace's requirements of a minimum of one Ted involved, so yeah, she's tonight you'ing them.

>>1291307>lipstickOne thing i like about dan, is how he grew so autistically attentive to minute things like that by developping his art slowly from deviant art chicken scratch.A ton of effort goes into that and yet he's still one of the most productive webcomic artists I know.Mad respect.

A fair amount of the fanbase for EGS also follows Wapsi Square - http://wapsisquare.com/ ... so, you might want to give that a try.

A couple things to keep in mind: these comics are nearly polar opposites in a number of ways. Art style, plot. The only thing that seems to be in common is both artists are prolific, have a wicked sense of humor, like to play a good bit with gender & social issues. The development of their art from origins through current is impressive, each in their own way. Dan Shive (EGS) is a lot more open to the community taking liberties with his characters, Paul "Pablo" Taylor likes doing sexy stuff, but is less happy with the fanbase taking extreme liberties with his characters ... meaning, you'll generally find a lot less porn of Wapsi characters, but often a good bit of just quality & sexy fan art.

Just wanted to mention that. Don't hate me if you end up not liking Wapsi Square ... I'm trying to do good by you. It can be hard to follow because Paul often leaves out excessive detail & assumes the fans will figure it out, but I've found it rewarding.

>>1293865I used to read Wapsi Square. Eventually got to the point where I was only reading for fanservice with Monica's boobs and Shelly's muscles, and I finally dropped it altogether after Monica's out-of-nowhere "RAPE IS BAD BECAUSE I WAS RAPED MULTIPLE TIMES AS A CHILD!" bombshell a few years back. Cheapest form of drama imaginable.

>When Carol found out she was going to be stuck doing some on location "nothing story" on corn farming on live television, she incessantly begged her incredibly powerful wizard sister, Sarah, to make something interesting happen during the broadcast.

>Sarah eventually agreed, and when the time came, quite an interesting thing did happen. Sarah would never admit to it, but she forgot to take both broadcast and spell range delays into account, and made the transformation even more "interesting" than intended.

>Though it is speculated that Sarah's choice of something interesting might have been an attempt to keep Carol from asking for something like this again, it accomplished no such thing. Carol absolutely loved the results, and was particularly thrilled about the boost to her fame.

>It wasn't long before it was just expected that something like this would happen during Carol's live reports.

Sexual harassment/assault & rape have all been some of Pablo's top triggers since very nearly Day One. If (you) hadn't noticed that by the time Monica came out as a rape survivor ... and even figured it out years before that reveal ... you weren't following pretty much any of Wapsi with any serious level of comprehension.

>>1295933Fair points perhaps, but to his credit that arc's is the only time it ever came up. I'd sooner criticize the hard turns taken by plots and character focus, it's hardly integrated at all. I mean shit that little aztec that was significant earlier dissappeared so long the art style evolution barely left him recognizable when he came back for three strips out of nowhere.

But his latest character is a girl that was just a regular spider that happened on fae magic and transformed, so I'll give him points for that.

>>1296131>Elliot had gotten a new spell, and for once, he had checked his spellbook in time to realize that he had it. More routine, however, was his inability to understand exactly what the spell was.>When Susan arrived to record a movie review with him, she asked her to take a look at it. Even Susan found the description confusing, but she concluded the spell was some sort of public speaking enhancer.>On the verge of doing public speaking of a sort and with a history of spells being easily reversible, they decided to try it out while doing the review. Elliot used the spell on each of them, and they felt a bit more energetic and ready to talk.>As they did their review, they started changing, as did their clothes. Their figures became more exaggerated, and their clothing became less and less.>Neither took notice of this and kept doing the review, feeling better and better all the while. Their own physical changes soon stopped, but their clothing kept going.>Elliot and Susan seemed to keep their focus on reviewing, mostly looking at the camera and talking about the movie, but they also kept moving closer together. Susan’s hand found it’s way to Elliot’s leg, and though their review never stopped, certain other things began…>Though very surprised later by what the spell actually did, Elliot and Susan decided they should use it for all of their reviews in the future, which would no longer actually be posted anywhere for some reason.kinky

>>1296280It's actually hotter to only have a written version of this imo.Dan's expertly slow pacing is educating my libido back to enjoying erotic stories and curing me from porn addiction as well as reparing my imagination.

I'm not gonna follow up on Wapsi here anymore; it's too off-topic. Originally, I just wanted to make a pointer to another comic that most EGS fans seem to appreciate for those who might not already know. I'm not up for it right now, but perhaps we could all collect some Wapsi art & fan art and start up a Wapsi thread in a week or three-ish.

Anyway, my last words for now:

>>1296215>Wapsi Square> latest character is a girl that was just a regular spider that happened on fae magic and transformed

Just gonna say 1) she was not "just a regular spider," her home of origin (the Library) probably made her other than "just regular." And 2) she damn adorable in many ways; looking forward to more of Digit. Her potential is amazing.

I rather admire Paul for the restraint he's imposed upon himself. He has become more lewd over the years, but draws the line at explicit. Frustrating, yes. Still top art, storytelling, and r.e.s.p.e.c.t. This piece: >>1293865 is pretty stunning for him, and I could be enthusiastically happy if that's as far as he ever goes, but does a lot more like that. Especially in-canon storyline.

The majority of his characters are lesbian &/or bi ... even Atsali has made it clear she goes both ways. And her current girlfriend has morphing capabilities that could go full EGS (and beyond) on their relationship. IF Paul takes it there.

>>1301046With how fast eliott is exploring his own sexual deviance (partly because of ashley but also because of his spells), we might actually start seeing more developpements.I expect really lewd stuff around 2021.

>>1294150>"RAPE IS BAD BECAUSE I WAS RAPED MULTIPLE TIMES AS A CHILD!"I had your reaction initially. Rape as drama is a cheap trick. Looking back through the archives, though, The hints are there. Without revealing why up to that point, there are multiple strips that make it clear Monica's stay at the mental hospital is a dark time she's trying to put behind her. My primary problem with the series is Paul himself. It gets annoying after awhile when he draws multiple cheesecake pics of a large breasted scantily clad teenager and when anyone says anything remotely sexual, he goes off on a "don't you dare sexualize my underage titty monster drawing" rant.

>>1295933The problem is that for a lot of fiction, rape as backstory has become just as pervasive as dead parents as backstory. In Wapsi's case, Paul had been foreshadowing that something seriously fucked up happened to Monica at the mental hospital for a decade of story writing, so this is not that. As I said in another post, my problem with Paul lately is that he's drawing teenage girls in skimpy clothes as pinups and then gets offended when someone makes a sexual remark about it.

I really appreciate how Shive puts references under the comics. It makes it follow the very interesting plot despite the pace of a comic-in-progress, without resorting to a discussion forum (and I only recently found this one, which barely even counts).Actually, considering this is 4chan...

>>1248159In the interest of potentially being fair to Ed, he could be privy to any amount of information, from minor to world-shatteringly massive, that we are not which might influence his parenting. I think it's more likely that he's just a big softy with serious issues relating to fear of losing his family, but what with this "traumatizing the seer" storyline evolving, we can't expressly assume that Ed isn't aware of the existence of multiple universes, or even specific information relating to different ones.

>>1309107>Dominic Deegan crossover incoming!!I'd love to see a nod to DD. I really loved that comic. I found it around the same time as EGS, I think. Damn, EGS was only about 6 months old when I started reading it. Was that two thousand freakin' three? Holy shit.

>>1309607>Anyone know if his new comic "Star Power" is any good?I don't know if it counts as *new* anymore. It's been around for like 2 years now, hasn't it? I've been reading it since page one. It's fantastic. Go check it out.

>>1310506>Literally a green lantern ripoff. There's even a ring that creates constructs and everything.*spoiler alert*

Reminds me of Green Lantern, yes, but her powers don't come from a ring. As for her being able to create constructs, I think she's only able to create energy swords and fire energy blasts. I don't recall her creating anything else.

>>1296420>Anyways, succu-siren will be munching carpet for the foreseeable future. I'll believe it when he draws pic.... oh no he won't.What a shame. She's been a walking erection factory for years and now she's legal that body is wasted unless she's shown using it.

>>1319217It's clear his goal is to destabilize the status quo in order to inspire a new order. Lord Tedd is almost certainly also due to the purpose going awry, and hunting down the other Tedds relates to that, but we haven't seen anything to suggest that something special concerning immortals or magic is going on in his dimension. I'd guess that a Lord Tedd like result would work towards his ends but isn't actually what he's out to accomplish.

Is it just me, or are these "hidden things" actually pretty obvious? I mean, I'd be shocked if Tedd wasn't going to choose if and how magic will change, and that instead he'd get to decide whether or not to flip the sex of everyone in the world.

(As for the ancestors, it's either human-immortal coupling or people who were marked unknowingly by powerful immortals.)

>>1323257OKAY I'M GONNA REDPILL YOU HERE JUST A LITTLE BIT ON EASTER.First off you gotta remember that Easter is taken from a pagan holiday. Still uses the goddess' name. The Roman Catholic church was big on taking pagan holidays and repurposing them when they converted a populace (which is why Mithras' birthday is now used as Jesus', despite his actual birthday being sometime in the Spring). In some areas the customs changed drastically, while in others the customs remained pretty damn much the same while the purpose changed around it. Rabbits, chicks, and eggs - all originally symbols of the goddess in question - all remain a part of the nominally-Christian holiday in England and English-speaking countries.

>>1324002That's the historical version. The one that actual people use is that there's a bunny that hides chocolate eggs and the kid has to go find them all, for fun. There are baskets with brightly coloured shredded plastic strips, children paint eggs, and people sometimes wear bunny-ear things on top of the head. Then they go to or come back from mass because the whole "Christ was nailed to a cross, died and was risen" thing. Charlie Brown and the Easter Beagle may be shown, or, if older, Jesus Christ Superstar.

>>1324233Well see, my parents told me the bells laid the eggs. Not that they were christian but that's how they explained why we got chocolates.And I guess they kept the lamb dinner because it made for a fine family evening.

>>1326498Oh good point! She's been so reasonable lately, I forgot that important thing about her.

I don't think she's becoming human, but something related to her lack of reset. Raven, maybe. Maybe half-immortals are only sterile until their sire undergoes a reset? Might explain the lack of knowledge.

>>1332577I ship ANY Elliot/ANY Tedd. I also like the idea of Elliot's alter ego forms developing deeper personas as he uses them more, then getting accidentally split off into their own bodies like Ellen was, just because Not!Elliot Heidi would be the most incredibly adorkable person out there and have the weirdest damn chemistry with EVERYONE. ESPECIALLY TEDD.>>1332292I like it as a one-sided thing. An occasional fantasy that passes through Sarah's head, twisted and wrong on every level but FUCK her sister is hot...

>>1333155>>1332956Let's say Elliot climbs into Susan's magic chest to hide from her mom barging in. But her mom is actually a demon in disguise, the chest is magic and sturdy and can't be opened from the inside, Susan suddenly really wishes Elliot were there to help her not die to a demon, and Elliot really wishes the same because he's Elliot. She consciously tries merely to summon her fairy during this situation. What shows up instead?

>>1324002Easter gets it's date from Passover, and they have the same name in most languages. It *is* named after a goddess (in English), but only indirectly; the Old English word for April was (maybe) named after her.

Random easter symbols have nothing to do with Eostre, they're just traditions that mutated over time.

Christmas might really be from one of the various solstice celebrations on that day, though! Nobody is sure.

>>1336432So what all did you guys see? Aside from the obvious hair/outfit swap in the background characters, there's a book that got darker, and I swear the guy's collar is bigger. Was there anything else?

Strange how on the background person, the lighting on the arms changed (especially the left arm), yet the lighting does _not_ change across the person's back. I wonder how that would happen.

Oh, and background person's back hair ruffle became smaller. I guess he smoothed it out a little between panels. Makes sense, ruffling with hair is a common fidgeting action when deliberating on a decision.